Pluth, Ed. Signifiers and Acts: Freedom in Lacan’s Theory of the Act. Albany: New York, 2007.
An identity politics usually makes a demand for recognition by appealing to notions of justice and equality, but there is often something more in its demands. For this reason, the recognition and victories obtained may be unsatisfying, because for many in the movement the movement was not just about the recognition of specific demands. … On Žižek’s account such scissions happen in political movements because there is always a desire lurking behind the demands that group makes: a desire that cannot be satisfied the way a demand can be (1999 Ticklish Subject, 266-268)
This desire is, as Žižek describes it, essentially negative. A movement that would respect the negative desire that constitutes it is one that might demand nothing in particular, yet would still protest. (140)
For Žižek and Badiou, a movement’s inability to articulate a specific demand, in contrast to movements that are quite specific and goal oriented, is an important marker of its political status (140).